The Wife He Left Behind

Blackout drunk, he mistook me for her. We tangled in his sheets until dawn. Morning light hit the red stain on the mattress. He stared at it. Silence choked the room.

Then, his voice scraped out. He promised to take responsibility. I built my whole life around that promise.

Then he dropped the bomb. "Juliet, she came back." He refused to look at me. "I never stopped thinking about her. The obsession never died." "Play your part. Don't cause a scene.

You keep the ring." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

His gaze met mine, turning straight to ice. "After all, you chased this exact outcome, right?" Chapter 1 The sharp beep of the electronic keypad jolted me awake.

I blinked my heavy eyes open, squinting against the faint morning light already creeping through the blinds. Silas pushed the door open, still dressed in his sharp black suit.

Exhaustion clung to his handsome features. Yet, his dark, steady eyes held a strange, electric spark.

I pushed up from the sofa and went to him, a smile automatically breaking across my face. "Silas." I wrinkled my nose at the strong smell of whiskey on him.

Still, I got up on my tiptoes and looped my arms around his neck, pulling myself flush against his chest. "Why are you so late? And you drank so much.

You promised you wouldn't." I kept babbling, tilting my head back to brush my nose against his jaw. "I have amazing news. Do you want to hear it?" He didn't answer.

He didn't dip his head to kiss me like he usually did. In the soft, dreamy morning light, he just stood there. Rigid. Unreachable.

He let me hold him, his brows pulling together in a tight V as he watched me playfully pout. Like a cold, detached bystander. "Silas?" My smile faltered.

The plastic pregnancy test clenched in my palm dug into my skin. A sharp, stinging reminder. But the giddy joy bubbling in my chest refused to die down.

It rushed through my veins, hot and uncontrollable. "I have something to show you—" "Juliet." He cut me off. The second he spoke my name, his hands clamped onto my shoulders.

He pushed me away. Hard. There was no room for argument in his grip. I stumbled back two steps. The floor seemed to drop out from under me. My heart slammed against my ribs.

A frantic, chaotic rhythm. Then, a sickening plunge. My blood turned to ice. I opened my mouth, desperate to spit out the news first. To tell him about the baby.

But Silas didn't give me the chance. "She's back." He lifted a hand, pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off the exhaustion. But that strange spark in his eyes flared brighter.

He looked like a man drowning in a memory. Something breathtakingly beautiful. The corner of his mouth twitched, curving upward against his will. It was a smile. Tender.

And incredibly cruel. The air rushed out of my lungs. "Who?" He finally lifted his gaze. He looked right at me. At the woman who was supposedly his wife. "Chloe.

She's back." That name was branded into my bones. She cast a long shadow over my entire teenage existence. The first love Silas used to obsess over.

The untouchable girl he eventually locked away in a vault, refusing to ever speak her name again.

The last time I heard someone say it out loud was the night before Silas and I went to the courthouse to get married.

He had been out all night, knocking back drinks with Brody and the guys from college. I was worried sick, so I drove to the bar at two in the morning to pick him up.

Just as I reached the door of their private room, a voice drifted through the crack. "Silas, do you still hate Chloe?" I froze in the hallway. My lungs locked up.

Even my pulse flatlined. Inside, heavy silence stretched for three agonizing seconds. Then, Silas's voice cut through the quiet, utterly flat. "No." "Makes sense.

You only hate someone when you still love them. You're marrying Juliet tomorrow, anyway," Brody slurred. "Drink up, man.

Why are we even bringing up ancient history?" The room erupted into loud cheers and clinking glasses again. But Silas drank a massive amount that night. He was completely wasted.

He almost made us miss our appointment at the courthouse the next morning. I was a little upset. I hadn't even had time to do my makeup perfectly for our big day.

Silas leaned in to coax me out of my bad mood.

He pressed his lips to my cheek, the hot breath trailing down to bite gently at my earlobe. "My wife is gorgeous no matter what," he whispered, his voice dark and raspy. "I love everything about you." Chapter 2 I was pathetically easy to sway.

Especially when it came to the man I had worshipped for so many years. The giddy joy had rushed through me that night. All because he called me his wife.

All because he said he loved me. After that, he never breathed Chloe's name again. I almost forgot she existed. Forgot there was another woman who had once owned his entire soul.

Silas shrugged off his suit jacket and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. I opened my mouth, the words sitting right on my tongue.

He struck a lighter, silencing me. "I'm sorry, Juliet. The second I laid eyes on her, it hit me.

I've just been lying to myself all these years." He took a deep drag. "I never forgot her. Not for a single second." He leaned against the wall, exhaling a plume of smoke.

His tense shoulders dropped. He looked like a man sinking into a perfect, untouchable dream. Then his gaze slid back to me. The warmth vanished. "I'm packing my things today.

As long as you don't cause a scene and just play your part, you get to stay my wife." "Silas—" My throat clamped shut. The vocal cords refused to vibrate.

He read my physical paralysis as an incoming tantrum. "Juliet." He casually reached over and ground his lit cigarette out in the damp soil of the potted plant next to him.

My breath hitched. A sharp, physical stab ripped through my chest. That was my prized white orchid. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

When he looked at me again, his voice was hollow. Utterly apathetic.

A dark, cynical smirk twisted his lips. "Wasn't this exactly what you wanted when you threw yourself at me back then?

If I had been just some broke kid with nothing to my name, would you have thrown yourself at me?" He scoffed. "You're a smart girl. You know how to play this." My vision blurred.

I stared at the man I had loved for so long. He felt like a total stranger. Even though he still looked exactly like the boy I fell for, his eyes were devoid of any gentleness.

But a cold numbness was spreading through my veins. I could feel him ripping himself out of my life. Silas turned his back on me. He made it halfway to the door before pausing.

He glanced over his shoulder. "Right. What were you trying to tell me earlier?" I dropped my gaze to the floor. A bitter, broken laugh scraped its way out of my throat. "Nothing.

It's nothing." He gave a curt nod. "Call me if you need anything.

I promised Martin I would take care of you, and I don't break my word." His hand gripped the doorknob. "Silas." The name tore out of me before I could stop it.

He paused, the hinges groaning. "What?" A flash of raw annoyance flared in his dark eyes. "What if—" My nails dug into my palms. "What if I'm pregnant?" Silas let out a dark, breathless chuckle.

Arrogant. Completely dismissive. "Juliet, drop it. We use protection. You're not pregnant." "But what if?" I pressed, my stomach knotting. "Condoms break.

Nothing is a hundred percent." Especially when he loved to drag me into bed without one, tracking my cycle and risking it anyway. The cruel amusement drained from his face.

He stepped back into my space. He lifted a hand, his calloused thumb brushing gently against my cheek.

He carefully, meticulously, tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Then you get rid of it." Chapter 3 Bringing a child into this world when their own father doesn't even want them… it isn't fair.

Chloe called me out of nowhere.

I was lying in a sterile hospital bed, a cold IV drip taped to the back of my hand, waiting to be wheeled into surgery. "Hi, this is Chloe." Her voice was bright and crystal clear.

She sounded exactly like a girl riding the high of a brandnew relationship. "I really want to thank you for taking care of Silas all these years for me." The words felt like a physical slap. "I only came back for a college reunion.

I had no idea Silas never moved on. He's still so deeply in love with me." A sickening pause. "Please forgive us for getting carried away.

I'm sure you know we were together for seven solid years. We were each other's first loves.

No one can ever replace that kind of bond." Chloe had always been the captain of the debate team back in college. I was the girl who tripped over her own words.

Even with the undeniable moral high ground, my throat tightened.

I forced my raw vocal cords to work. "Did you need something, Chloe?" Heavy silence stretched over the line. "I heard you never bothered to get a job after the wedding." The judgment dripped from every syllable. "Woman to woman, I despise freeloading wives like you, Juliet.

If I were you, I'd be too humiliated to stay. I'd sign the divorce papers and step aside for the woman who actually deserves him." I stared blankly at the ceiling tiles.

My eyes tracked the steady, rhythmic drip of the clear fluid sliding down the IV tube. "So, you do realize being a homewrecker is nothing to be proud of, don't you?" "Juliet, if we're looking at the facts, Silas and I got together eight years ago!" Her breathing fractured.

The arrogant composure cracked. "You wedged yourself between us.

You're the other woman!" A girl with an ego that massive could never stomach being labeled the 'other woman.' A weak, hollow laugh scraped its way up my throat. "Chloe, I am more than willing to sign the divorce papers.

But you're going to have to convince Silas to let me go." I hit end call. The door pushed open.

Allison stepped in with a warm, sympathetic smile. "Juliet, it's time for the OR." I gave a stiff nod and squeezed my eyes shut. The icy rush of anesthesia hit my vein.

And then, nothing. I woke up to my phone vibrating aggressively against the plastic tray table. Three missed calls. All from Silas. The screen lit up with a fourth.

My fingers trembled as I swiped to answer. "Juliet, you aren't home?" The suppressed rage practically vibrated through the speaker. "You organize all my clothes.

I can't find a damn thing. Come back right now." I used to leap at his every call. I used to pick up on the first ring, desperate for his attention.

He held me entirely in the palm of his hand. He really thought he could keep me on that leash forever. But the leash just snapped. "Yeah.

I'm not home." My voice rasped, devoid of emotion. "And I can't come back right now." "Where the hell are you?

Are you throwing a tantrum?" He let out a harsh breath. "I already told you we aren't getting divorced. I swore an oath at Martin's hospital bed.

You still get to be the spoiled, trophy wife.

What exactly is the problem here?" "I'm at the hospital." I stared at the stark white blanket covering my lap. "I'm not throwing a tantrum. Yes, you made a promise. I remember.

I don't have a problem…" "The hospital? What's wrong with you?" Silas's voice spiked. The sudden panic bled through the line.

Then, he quickly rationalized it away. "You're always perfectly healthy. You aren't the one who's sick.

You're visiting a friend, right?" Chapter 4 I shook my head at the empty room. It was supposed to be a minor, painless procedure.

But as the anesthesia wore off, a vicious cramp twisted deep in my abdomen. I bit down hard on my lower lip, tasting copper, forcing my voice to stay level. "No.

I'm not visiting a friend." "Then what the hell are you doing at a hospital?" "I had a minor surgery." "What surgery?" His voice spiked again. "Why wouldn't you tell me you were having surgery?

Juliet, I am still your husband." Silas was acting strange. He snapped out of nowhere. The man who prided himself on absolute, freezing control was losing his grip.

A cold sweat broke out across my palm, slicking the plastic of my phone. "An abortion. Sorry. I figured you were busy catching up with Chloe.

I didn't want to bother you with something so trivial." My voice splintered on the last syllable. A single, searing tear escaped my lashes. It slid down my cheek. Not for him.

Just for the tiny, unwanted life that had already slipped away. "Besides, I was just getting rid of a complication you never wanted.

I didn't think it mattered to you, so I didn't say anything